Movie Mindset Oscar Preview ‘24
Will and Hesse review the top films of 2023 in this special Movie Mindset Oscars Preview. We go through the major Best Picture nominees, give our takes on each, and give our picks for winners in the major categories, plus some discussion of notable snubs. Also, a little preview of Movie Mindset Season 2, launching April 24th.
We’ll have a blog post with a full official Season 2 schedule (plus where to stream/watch/consume options for each film) up sometime next week.
Comments (212)
Oh dang I thought this was a little preview not a 2 hour thing
Anyone got time stamps for the movies
For the new Movie Mindsets how have I only heard of 1% of these movies wtf
barbie and oppenheimer: two great movies, one great viral marketing campaign. more please!
Yes, bring on Hari Nef!
The Hit Factory podcast blocked me on Twitter because they got ragebaited by a parody account pretending to be mad about sex scenes and I pointed it out
Oppenheimer is insufferable because two half-assed attempts at portraying his feelings of guilt cannot conceal the fact than Nolan doesn't give a shit about the actual crime against humanity. All he cares about is non-geniuses being mean to geniuses. That's what the overwhelming majority of the film is about : one part genius porn (and I'm not talking about the smut, I'm talking about "you learned enough Dutch bla bla ?!"), two parts stakes-less hearings (don't pretend any of it was interesting). It is 100% like the Zone of Interest in that it is entirely from the point of view of the perpetrators of absolute evil, except the difference here is Nolan is in Love with his subject.
What you're effectively complaining about here is that Oppenheimer was about one thing when you wished it was about another. Not the film's problem!
If I may suggest a Movie Mindset topic (and apologies if already done/in the works) -- Peter Bogdanovich, specifically Targets and Last Picture Show. I think that would be a fun episode, those seem right up both your alley!
nah they should just talk about saint jack
I agree with pretty much every movie opinion/commentary mentioned except that, on the list of things Carey Mulligan was good in, I thought she was good in "Promising Young Woman" however I have a viscerally uncomfortable reaction to that movie because of the death scene and the realistic and graphic horror of it.
Past lives sucked shit
American Fiction was very funny. Not great.
Poor things is one of the best films in decades.
American Fiction was good
He's discussing The Zone. Tell me what Israeli along the border of Gaza or in West Bank or at Nova was not living and exalting in the same hellish spectacle on their periphery? People keep trying to get me to feel something for people caught out in Oct 7th and I simply don't. I can't. They are Nazis and they bore witness each and everyday to the reaving which elevated them.
Super excited for the Fassbinder episode. In a Year of Thirteen Moons is one of my absolute favorite movies of all times… and definitely the most affecting on first watch!
5:00 Maestro 15:15 Zone of Interest 28:20 The Holdovers 34:20 Anatomy of a Fall 44:15 Barbenheimer 1:00:30 Poor Things 1:02:30 Killers of the Flower Moon 1:19:15 Beau is Afraid
Thank you!
I LOVE HESSE LFG
Hessa was right that Rudolph Hess went and got himself captured by flying into Scotland because MI6 had convinced him the Duke of Hamilton was going to negotiate Britain's surrender. Rudolph Höss was the commandant of Auschwitz and the main character in Zone of Interest. But because German is a fucking stupid made up language their names sound the same.
This is correct. In fact, if you were to write Höss phonetically it would look more like Hesse ... wait a minute!
will one of you watch zone of interest with me im too scared to watch it alone
Terribly concerning that Will liked Barbie but thought Poor Things “had nothing to say”. Sheesh.
I think it was probably over Will's head and he should stick to reviewing Mark Wahlberg's Shooter or whatever.
Oppenheimer - the main problem was that the 3rd act was boring and uncompelling. Poor Things - Banger. Great film. A fun, stylish picaresque that asks: what if a woman was free of the conditioning of growing up in a patriarchal society because Frankenstein. Beau is Afraid - Tha god Ari Aster does it again The Holdovers - I felt like I had seen this movie several times before. Pretty trite.
I found Oppenheimer's third act very compelling: to me it was less about letting Bobby O off the hook and more about how the power structure was able to turn on all of the commie science nerds because they had paperclipped in all of the nazi science nerds. Agree Agree Holdovers had me from the first strains of Silver Joy - I actually laughed out loud at myself that I'm that easy. And I get what you're saying but there's something in Giamatti's - sacrifice/letting go of the safety and ease that was almost more a prison - for Sessa; I read it as Payne saying that's what the boomers would have done if they actually cared about any of the values they claim to have. It felt like a pretty good meditation (see what I did there) on what's empty and what's worth holding onto or making room for.
Blaming will menaker personally for Lily Gladstone losing to Emma Sadstone
mmyeah
Something that bothers me with a lot of Nolan’s output (and the most egregious example I can think of is Inception) is the Hans Zimmer-esque score almost never stops. You have a procession of more or less identically scored scenes that makes you lose sense of when the really important things are happening. It kinda touches upon that “procedural” comment Will made. It’s like, I’ve come to associate that Nolan sheen with Batman so much that every time I’m watching any of his other movies I subconsciously keep waiting for Batman to show up. I don’t know… Anyway, I thought both The Zone of Interest and Killers of the Flower Moon were better. Past Lives was also great.
Under the skin is so fucking good. The movie just creates this gutting, horror that doesn't happen in the book. But the book is also good, imo.
I loved Mother!
I will not stand for Yorgos slander 😫
man you just reminded me of the community on youtube that edits out all the rap sections from gorrilaz songs
Do you know if theres an opposite community that edits out everything except for the rap sections? I just wanna hear the rap parts everything else sucks
Emergency podcast to talk about who won actually best actress.
AFTER HOURS / REPOMAN!
I really feel like the trial in Anatomy has absolutely nothing to do with how the French legal system works.
I felt like that movie was nothing special. Great character study. But idk. I saw it at home. Probably would have been better in theater
Bradley's conducting was awful, apparently.
absolute shocker that Will hasn't seen a subtitled movie.
They snubbed our queen
It is important that the Oscar for Best Actress goes to the film we are least likely to discuss or remember in ten years time.
I love Movie Mindset episodes ❤️
Anatomy of a Fall... coming away I didn't see the protagonist as being guilty or not guilty, the "hung jury element" of it made it so good
I haven’t watched any movies this, or last year, or the year before that, so pls no spoilers
Oppie haters seething
Needed this
I took band as an elective in middle school and high school (I just fucked around with percussion instruments I’m not a fucking loser) and I can confirm for the vast majority of the band if they know what they’re doing the conductor might as well take the baton and do Happy Gilmore humping w the construction cone.
Is that what you did in band?
I watched Zone of Interest based on this glowing review and what a ripoff. This could have been a short film or even a still image. You "get it" from the first shot of the concentration camp in the background of their suburban house, and there's never anything more than that. Still very relevant, though, because this is what Israel is doing to Palestine. I just wish it has been a still image instead of a feature length movie. Edit: I only listened to the very beginning of the Zone of Interest review and skipped to the next movie so I wouldn't get spoilers, so maybe this is my fault.
yes, Marty has done it again, and again and again. he’s rehashed the same film over and over.
The departed?
Y’all slept on Poor Things. Definitely gonna win some awards.
a very simple rule in Oscar forecasting is paying attention to which movie puts the most effort into costumes and art direction, because all those art nerds in the academy vote and they like rewarding movies with visual flair.
Penis from Heaven
Entire review of Anatomy of A Fall doesn’t even mention the kid?
That’s hella dumb.
That was so nice y’all
The god Michael Mann getting shafted, Ferrari rocks
Shailene Woodley’s awful acting / accent tanked the entire movie for me
my moms review of zone of interest was that she didn’t get it and nothing happened
She’s right
Poor Things is good, you’re just a prude
Sorry but Podcast for the New American Century still has a superior intro
Sorry, could you name a podcast that people actually listen to
I hate that Barbie and American Fiction and to some extent Poor Things were positioned as "important" movies. They're cathartic but they're as deep as a puddle. The marketing just seems like pandering to libs--making them feel their entertainment is part of a larger conversation and absolving them from actually thinking about what might be causing the phenomena being mocked. It's a form of pandering that if Erasure were written today, it would probably satirize.
With Barbie it’s not just the marketing though, pandering to libs is part of the text
“Charlie Wilson’s War” was originally going to end with 9/11 until lame Tom Hanks said “we can’t do that this comes out on Christmas Day”
Kotfm sucked. Talk about boring.
It was far too slow. They didn’t have to actually show Minnie’s death. Also could’ve reduced the amount of time Lilly was just breathing on her death bed scene after scene
Man I love this series, but the theme song is horrible imo
it’s truly horrible, maybe the worst intro i’ve even heard.
Lol @ Chris shutting down where that riff was going
haven't seen aby best picture noms besides Barbenheimer but honestly spoilers get me more excited to do so sometimes. I think it's funny wills opinions on poor things and BIA heavily contrast the ones I seem to see! It's really fucked up how KOTFM or ZOI can win best picture but the room is full of zionists who refuse to connect the dots
American Fiction is actually a good movie. I urge you to actually see it.
I think Hesse is correct in that R. Hess did try to defect to Scotland. He went on some solo missions to the UK (peace brokering? idr why)
The guy to went to Scotland is Rudolph Hess. This movie is about a confusingly similarly named Nazi named Rudolf Höss.
Poor things is good, actually.
Genuinely what did you like about it
Glad to know Hesse and I feel the same about Saltburn
You're both wrong.
Holy shit I gotta see Beau if Afraid. I’ve never laughed so hard to a summary a movie I haven’t seen
HARI NEF FOR MOVIE MINDSET
I’m so glad y’all liked Beau is Afraid so much it’s like maybe my favorite movie of the past 10 years. Such an original and daring piece of art. It’s terrifying and insane but it weirdly makes me feel seen as an insane person and I really love that about it 🧍🏼♀️
Bringing Up Baby! 🐆
I think Carey Mulligan’s problem is that all the roles that she would be good for end up being cast with Michelle Williams, and so Mulligan ends up in all the productions that couldn’t nab Michelle Williams
Got to see Pennies From Heaven when it came out cos my parents couldn’t get a babysitter. It was fucking mesmerising as a tiny kid.
If you're doing a 90's noir episode you have to include "The Usual Suspects"
"Saltburn" was great and "Napoleon" was good. Enough with the Ridley Scott hate boner shit.
I know nothing about film and didn't like it at all. I have no boner to give Mr Scott. Never even seen Alien in full. It just was a bloated and mostly unenjoyable film. The ice action scene was cool though.
Check out “Tony Erdmann” also with Sandra Heuller. A retired dead beat dad desires he wants to reconnect with his daughter while she’s on an evil consulting job in Romania.
Such a great movie
The way they describe Josh Harnett in Oppenheimer is spot on, always liked him
"Past Lives" more like "Paint Dries"
Crucially Hoss doesn't actually throw up like Hesse says, he dry heaves
Beau is afraid was awesome, absolutely hilarious. Iron Claw was probably my favorite, or killers of the flower moon. Anatomy of a fall was insanely boring and dog shit, so awful and boring couldn’t wait for it to end
Sound of Freedom was robbed.
Saltburn is amazing if you want a Tom Ripley Jr. story. Don’t expect surreal artsy class conscious nonsense like the trailer tries to make you think it is.
Welcome to French court, we will now commence with the epistemic foundations portion of the trial — madame, what is truth? What is knowledge? Foucault said…
Interjection! The defendant’s breasts look weird in that jacket! Also she’s a whore!
Dude the first scene where Hoss goes into the camp and the polish guy has to come and wash the blood off his boots. That sets it all up and my stomach was in the floor the whole fucking movie.
Past Lives one of the best I’ve seen in a while
Great episode!
Turned this off after they hadn’t seen Past Lives and American Fiction. Those are the best ones!
Great bonus episode, but someone please coach Hesse on the superfluous, nonstop “Yes”ing.
Damn just let a girl live
Will has to see “The Father”. Hopkins 100 deserved that Oscar. Absolute earth shattering performance.
Beau is Afraid heads vindicated
would love a Movie Mindset about Where Eagles Dare, upon hearing more Zone of Interest discourse. WED forever remains one of the most satisfying nazi-killing action movies of all time, with Clint Eastwood playing supporting actor to Richard mfing Burton
Also Rudolph Hess specifically was the guy who tried to enter an insanity plea at Nuremberg, there’s a gigantic controversy as to whether he was faking it
I had Tarr and Maestro confused in my head for like the first ten minutes of this.
Past Lives mid
Tar 2: Re-Tar
🚨BLONDE MENTION🚨
If you guys want to get both Will Talks Movies and a delicious performance by King Matt Christman, they're in a 2022 episode of We Hate Movies talking about Point Break.
Might kill my husband if he constantly blasted a Caribbean instrumental cover of p.I.m.p
A rare Will disagreement here, I adored Poor Things
yeah laugh up your long money WOMEN TALKING pick, Hesse. i lost $10 on that bet!
Were it not for Zone of Interest, Beau if Afraid would have been movie of the year for me. It was astounding.
Loved Will’s comment on Isbell’s character in Killers (who obviously was a real guy). He is not a good dude or sympathetic. He’s just a villain in competition with another villain, both perpetrating the same scheme.
And there’s really nothing to interpret. The hint is Isbell’s character telling DiCaprio that Isbell and his now-wife (the sister of Isbell’s previous and now-dead wife) got a pretty sweet deal from the Schoen Bros (the crooked docs) in buying their house.
Zone of Interest and Beau is Afraid is kind of the same movie
Btw, the score of The Zone of Interest was written by the amazing queer musician (and regular Glazer collaborator) Mica Levi. They also did the score for Under the Skin https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cRi7gkIXKPA
Really excited for the back half of the season, the last 4 weeks have some of my all time favorites. I’ve seen dozens of fassbinder films at this point and he doesn’t miss, there are some that are better than others but they all have that RWF magic in them, can’t wait to hear their thoughts on him (In a year of 13 moons is also Linklater’s favorite fassbinder)
Hesse is queen
(Will is also queen)
Long money bet: barbie doesn't win best picture, resulting in a 1/6-style insurrection at the oscars
So happy to have Movie Mindset back.
If you guys do another Ghoulvie Screamset slate this fall, please please PLEASE talk about The Empty Man. One of the only horror movies of the last 10 years that has really stuck with me, beyond just having good scares or whatever, for YEARS. Love that one, don't miss it!!!
I love movies I thought I was the only one !!!! Keep it up! Great work bill and Jessica!
AMERICAN FICTION is the most "it's fine" movie of the year. The "meta" non-ending doesn't add anything but it's pretty painless. Also it's nice to see a satirical concept play out where there are almost no characters that are treated like complete dummies: there are a couple of vapid white ladies and the one publishing house rep, otherwise that's it. (And w/the latter there's a hilarious character detail: massive screen prints of RBG on her office wall.) All told I would have liked to see Wright nominated for ASTEROID CITY. Or THE FRENCH DISPATCH, just a few years ago! Remember when he calls Liev Schreiber a silly goose?
I haven't seen Oppenheimer but it sounds like it has the same moral as Franky's backstory in one piece
American Fiction was fucking hilarious what the fuck
Agreed, it ruled. I’m making a stand.
I love these episodes so much, but I disagree with Will about Poor Things. He claimed it was all style and no substance - which in my view more accurately describes Asteroid City - which leads me to believe he missed the films stirring rearticulation of the Enlightenment idea of the perfectibility of man, the absurdity of existence, and its unabashed optimism about the potential of salvation through scientific progress
American Fiction does actually have a definitive ending and not a Clue-like thing where it gives you options. I'm not sure I would say it's the best film of the year (for me that would either go to Beau is Afraid, or a Japanese film I saw a t a festival called River, seriously check it out), but I think it's a pretty charming and funny movie that's about a lot more than what the trailer lets on. I think it's worth seeing at least for Jeffrey Wright's performance. I also think if it wins best picture it would create an ouroboros.
going long on the holdovers for best picture
Cooper as Bernstein = Harris as Pollack. Two actors who felt like they knew the man so well, that they were actually inhabiting the character so completely that the actual script was immaterial
I'm a film idiot so hearing my favorite movie Night of the Hunter echoed makes me feel valid
Watched it last night on internet archive its excellent
And Godzilla was fucking robbed
Perfect Days is really good though.
Can't wait for the Fassbinder episodes one of my all time favorite directors but a truly horrible person
The week of slop!
Love these episodes. One of the most chilling parts of Zone of Interest was when the mother in law wonders aloud to Hedwig if the lady she used to clean for is “over there”
Had the same beau is afraid experience as will, except the next day I was still mad. I'm still mad at the penis monster. I'm sick of my gf making me watch movies about ari aster's weird relationship with his mom
damn this was worth all those scheduling fuck ups. what an embarrassment of riches.
Its legit this has been an incredible Friday
PRIEST: Uncommitted ME: Yes. Good PRIEST: Springtime for Germany ME: Great. Go on. keep em comin PRIEST: ...Movie Mindset ME: No (just kidding, this is awesome)
Hannah and her Sisters plzzzz
I haven’t seen Holdovers yet, but I saw a still in which they’re standing in front of The Chateau in Waltham, MA and I popped.
I got so mad at the pace of Oppenheimer. The middle section at Los Alamos was great, but the rest…meh.
yeah, it's a pretty exciting short film that's book-ended by hour-long slogs of incoherent sound mixing. i like a lot of nolan's movies, but i think this is by far his worst.
Rudolph Hess was the Nazi that secretly flew to the UK. Maybe it’s not the same person as in the movie but that did happen IRL.
Yeah the movie is about Rudolf Höss not Hess
Also American Fiction is good though
When I was a kid I thought the world was black and white until the 70s 😳
Don’t let the haters tell you you’re wrong
I just want to say I have two music performance degrees and I completely agree with will about conducting
I'VE GOT THE OSCAR FEVER
Jodie Foster has two Academy Award wins. A few years before Silence she won for the trauma-porn movie The Accused. I have not seen it in decades, but the brutal final scene (which I don’t really want to describe, look it up if you want, it’s a tough watch) is something I have never fully shaken off. I don’t know if I’d even call the movie “good,” but it may be as vulnerable as I can remember any actor making herself.
Beau is Afraid was fucking incredible, go watch it right now
*norman rockwell painting guy voice* I thought American Fiction was good
Zone of the Ending must be what it's like to be an Israeli settler
Excellent interpretation of the Zone ending here: https://www.vulture.com/article/the-zone-of-interests-vomit-inducing-ending-explained.html
will gets zone of interest exactly right, no surprise
surprise saltburn diss
Would love a look into Jim Jarmusch. I love Movie Mindset!
im so ready for my Fromslop lore
Darkslop
I loved poor things
piggies eating good this week
100% correct on Beau is Afraid being the best movie of the year. Between that, Zone of Interest, and Killers of the Flower Moon - this was a banner year for Michael Haneke-core. Anti-cinema and reminding the audience that they are complicit in horrors beyond their comprehension; from genocide to forgetting to call your mom.
Having seen Oppenheimer, Zone, and Killers and considering them the best of these, both individually, and to some extent in combination, in the context of these times, is uhh pretty fucking brutal to wrangle with their distinct notions of perpetual incidental evil that has always been there and seemingly always will. Feeling GREAT, really good movies and episode
I have to imagine Bradley Cooper only made that movie because of tweets from Brooklyn podcast types who were all really obsessed with Leonard Bernstein in 2019.
I have been surprised by some of the negative reviews of Zone of Interest. Some people seem to have seen a different film from the one that I saw. It was pretty powerful. Little things like the Mother-in-Law waking up from a nap because she's choking on the smoke from "next door". The constant steam in the distance as the trains are arriving. The way that the two boys clearly know what's happening next door. It was intense. Some reviewers seem to have thought that the movie was humanizing the family of Nazis and I have no idea how you could get that impression. They clearly painted these people as the personification of the banality of evil. I had to go for a very long walk after leaving the theater.
That is "humanizing" in a sense, but not in a favorable way. Maybe the people interpreting it as such just see too much of themselves in the humans on screen and can't help but feel its favorable.
Anthony Hopkins for the father was like one of the few times the actual best acting performance of the year ... won the oscar. it wasn't a "pat on the back for your career" award - yall gotta see it. it's an incredibly haunting performance.
I saw it, it was brutal
Impossibly based
It’s Chapo’s biggest night!
Let's go
that's right baybee Movie Mindset back ridin my dick like Muad'dib
Hell yes, I was hoping you guys would do this again this year
Yes & Yes!!
I've been looking for podcasts about movies like this since you finished last season but no one I've found understands that all movies are funny
Check out The Important Cinema Club
Have I died and gone to hog heaven? Thanks for the swill, Will. 🐽
Much needed
This should hold me over until the real Oscar special on Sunday
3 episodes and a two hour preview episode. Is it Christmas?
Season 2 should be called Sigma Movie Grindset. I don’t care how stupid it sounds.
I've got the oscer fever, hope you got it too
Maybe I have too much slop to eat today. My bully is bloated
American Fiction was touching and hilarious. Big thumbs up.
Not having watched past lives before doing this recap is irresponsible. But still thank you for the slop.
My best friends are back to talk about movies with me personally again
Now if we just get our other best friend, Nick Mullen on.
Wow we are eating good today boys
Yesss
this is what we wanted!
Hell yeah daddy o
massive wet egg on the face of anyone who complained about not getting their slop…fucking peasant mentality!
yayy ❤️
Let the slop flow
Huge time to be a Chapo shithead
Will got on those good uppers, putting out 5 eps in one week
So much quality slop!
Speeding Motorcycle?
Mr Menaker we need a Dune 2 review soon
Letsgoooo